Electric

  • Nissan Leaf Accident Repair

    It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been driving, what type of car you have or how it happened: having a car accident isn’t nice. Normally, post-accident, your insurance company may help you find a local repairer to get your car looking good as new again. But if you have an electric car, letting them do that could damage your car’s expensive battery pack, reducing its life and usability. Here is our take on what happens after an accident, and why you need to ensure your electric car goes to a specialist garage for repair instead of a repair center chosen on price alone...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt charging port
    Charging Your Electric Car At Home? You’re 20 Feet From Power (Probably)

    While many car buyers today are interested in making the switch from gasoline to plug-in cars, they often worry that they have nowhere to charge it at night. That worry can lead to consumers ignoring plug-in options, but a new study from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (via...

  • Mercedes-Benz B-Class E-Cell Plus Concept
    2014 Mercedes-Benz All-Electric B-Class Replaces Plug-in Hybrid Plans

    At the start of this year, we told you that Mercedes-Benz was planning to introduce a B Class range-extended plug-in hybrid to the U.S. market some time during 2013. Now it seems the German automaker has changed its mind, replacing plans for a plug-in hybrid with an all-electric B Class jointly...

  • 1974 Enfield 8000 Electric Car
    Funky Friday: Flux Capacitor Charges Up Historic Electric Drag Racing

    Every Friday, those of us who work at GreenCarReports like to kick back a little with a story that, if you’ll forgive us, is more about indulging our fun side than it is educating you about green cars. In keeping with that tradition, we felt it time to combine two of our collective loves --...

  • Hot Weather: Bad For Electric Car Batteries?
    How Long Will Your Electric Car Battery Last? It Depends Where You Live

    Over the past few months, we’ve been covering the woes of 2011 Nissan Leaf owners in hotter states who have already reported a noticeable loss in battery capacity since their cars were new. The woes of these early-adopting Leaf owners has certainly prompted many to ask if electric car battery...

  • Dr. Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy
    In 10 Years, How Much Should An Electric Car Cost? Sec Chu Says $25K

    Electric cars have traditionally been more costly to build and buy than their gasoline counterparts thanks to their limited production numbers and the high cost of battery packs. We already know that the price of electric car battery packs are dropping faster than analysts predicted they would, but...

  • Papal Electric Car

    Pope Benedict XVI is already called “The Green Pope” thanks to measures taken since his installation to reduce the carbon footprint of the Vatican City. Now the Vatican can add green transport to the list of the Pontiff’s green virtues, thanks to an electric city car donated to the Vatican by Italian electric car company NWG. A 2-seat electric city car with a top speed of 62 mph and a range of around 86 miles per charge, the tiny car has already received its papal blessing and will be used for official Papal business around the Vatican City. Back in 2010, the Vatican...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt using Level 2 240-Volt charging station in Vacaville, California
    Want To Start An Electric Car Charging Company in CO? You Can, For Just $5,000

    If you’ve been reading GreenCarReports for a while, you’ll know that Colorado loves its green cars, with more than double the national average of hybrid cars registered there and some pretty big tax credits available to those buying a plug-in car. Now, thanks to a change in law in the...

  • A123 Systems Employees Perform Quality Check on a Lithium-Ion Battery Pack  [source: A123 Systems]
    Are Electric-Car Batteries Already at $250 Per kWh? Analyst Says Yes

    How expensive are electric car battery packs? It’s a topic of much discussion among electric car fans, and a closely guarded secret within the auto industry, but now an industry analyst has suggested that improved technology and economies of scale has lowed electric car battery pack costs to...

  • 2012 Nissan Leaf
    Think The 2012 Nissan Leaf Is Too Expensive? Australians Pay $52K

    One of the most frequent criticisms we hear of electric and plug-in hybrid cars is that they’re just too expensive. Take the 2012 Nissan Leaf, for example. Before government and state incentives, a base-level Leaf SV will set you back $35,200. Live in the right area however, and incentives...

  • 2012 Renault Twizy
    Weekend Test-Drive: Can Tiny Renault Twizy Be A Real Car?

    When we first heard that French automaker Renault was producing a tiny, two-seat electric car with a top speed of 52mph called the Twizy, we have to admit to laughing. A lot. But after driving a production Renault Twizy in Ibiza earlier this year, our impression of the plucky go-kart changed. Could...

  • Toyota Camatte Toy Car
    Toyota’s New Electric Car Is One Your Kids, Not You, Will Want To Drive

    If children are the future, then how do we get them driving clean, green electric cars? It’s a question we’ve thought a lot about, but Toyota thinks it has come up with a solution, with a new three-seat electric concept car that your kids can drive. As Automotive News (subscription...

  • My Ford Mobile

    According to our own reckoning, Ford hasn’t really sold that many 2012 Ford Focus Electric cars to non fleet customers. For those who have made the purchase however, the automaker has announced its smartphone iPhone app and website are now live, letting customers remotely interact with their car. Just like smartphone apps for the 2012 Nissan Leaf and 2012 Chevrolet Volt, Ford’s smartphone app -- called MyFord Mobile -- allows users to check their car’s state of charge, precondition the cabin and commence charging. It also adds the ability to locate charging stations and set...

  • EPA Beyond Tailpipe Emissions Tool
    How Clean Is Your Electric Car? Online Tool Helps You Find Out

    If you’re looking to buy an electric car, you’re probably familiar with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Fuel Economy website, which lists the gas mileage of every car on sale today along with the miles per gallon equivalent rating for every plug-in car. Unfortunately, the...

  • 2012 Chevrolet Volt
    2012 Chevrolet Volt Owners Help With Peppy Volt Ad Campaign

    Just how do you advertise a plug-in car like the 2012 Chevrolet Volt? In the two years since advertising for General Motors’ first plug-in hybrid started, GM has tried a whole bunch of different tactics. Sadly, to date, very few have been successful, focusing on why you should want a Chevy...

  • BMW i3 Concept MkII
    First BMW i Store Opens in London, i3 Concept Gets New Interior

    If you’ve ever visited central London in England and visited its famous Hyde Park, the chances are you’ve also seen one of BMW’s most prestigious showrooms, located along the highly-expensive and exclusive Park Lane. Now, weeks ahead of the BMW-sponsored 2012 London Olympic games...

  • 2012 Mitsubishi i  -  First Drive, U.S.-spec MiEV
    Consumer Reports Hates 2012 Mitsubishi I’s Range: Is It Right?

    Mitsubishi’s tiny egg-shaped electric car known as the 2012 Mitsubishi i is currently the cheapest electric car you can buy in the U.S. Starting at $29,125 before incentives, the 2012 Mitsubishi i features seating for four adults, a 16 kilowatt-hour battery pack, and an EPA-approved range of...

  • 2012 Nissan Leaf winter test
    Nissan’s CO2 Fund Rewards 2012 Leaf Drivers The More They Drive

    Talk to any electric car owner, and it’s likely they’ll tell you how little money they spend on running their plug-in car. For them, the switch to electric pays dividends in saved gas bills, but in Japan, a new scheme by Nissan takes it one step further, allowing electric car drivers to...

  • Eaton CHAdeMO DC quick charging station, Mitsubishi headquarters, Cypress, CA

    To help make electric cars more palatable for long-distance driving, the 2012 Nissan Leaf SL and 2012 Mitsubishi i can be rapid-charged from empty to 80 percent full in around 30 minutes using specially-designed Chademo rapid charge stations. For those using them, rapid charge stations provide a welcome alternative to slower, level 2 charging stations, but require up to 50 kilowatts of instantaneous power from the electrical grid in order to work, leading some to worry about the strain that they place on the electrical grid. The solution, developed and deployed in Chicago by electric car...

  • TMG EV P0002
    Toyota Enters Electric Car Into Pikes Peak Hill Climb

    This year’s annual Pikes Peak hill climb is shaping up to be something pretty spectacular for electric vehicle fans. After last year’s race, which saw the all-electric Yokohama HER-02 set a new course with a time of 12 minutes and 20 seconds, we’ve seen official entries already...

  • Tesla Motors gallery in Houston Galleria, opened October 2011, with Model S on display
    Tesla Faces Dealer Opposition To Opening New Store In MA

    This week has been a pretty good one for Californian automaker Tesla: it has shipped its first two production 2012 Model S sedans, announced a 45-day tour, and even sold out of its 2013 Model S Signature Edition sedans. But in Massachusetts, the luxury car maker faces an uphill struggle to open a...

  • 2012 Nissan Leaf Taxi in Sao Paulo
    2012 Nissan Leaf Becomes A Taxi In Sao Paulo City

    It’s the largest city in Brazil, and the world’s seventh largest city by population, but now Sao Paulo can claim another first: it’s one of the few cities in the world where you can hail a Nissan Leaf electric taxi cab. Part of a pilot program between Sao Paul Municipality, the...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S Get Amped Tour
    Tesla Plans 5,000 Model S 'Test Drives' In 45 Days, Starting June 23

    This morning we told you about Tesla investor Steve Jurvetson, who, alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk, became the first two official owners of a 2012 Tesla Model S. Up to this point, Tesla has been particularly guarded about giving test-drives of its all-electric sedan, with the only experiences to...

  • Portland CHAdeMO quick-charging station (publicly accessible)
    Need Electric-Car Charging At Work? Here’s How To Get It

    You’ve decided to take the plunge and buy an all-electric or plug-in car, and you want to use it as your daily driver to and from work. Although your car gets a full recharge every night, you’d like to convince your boss to let you plug in at work, or perhaps even have a dedicated...

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